This is a blog written by Chinese and writing in English, and we have no ideas about who is going to read our posts. So the bottom line is that we should find out who is our audience.
So far, most of our audience are from mainland China, and speaking Chinese as their everyday language, according to Google Analytics' data. This is one audience group we might pick, then we have to figure out what's point of writing English blog posts for Chinese readers. Here are some possible answers:
- Typing English is a whole lot faster than typing Chinese, and that can save our time.
- Just for practicing English.
- For getting to know Chinese who might have the same higher value(at least have the same higher English skill).
What is the other possible audience group? They might be people who know little about but are interested in Chinese language and culture. And what are the benefits for targeting these audience? They might be:
- Getting to know foreigners, which means people who have different culture background with us.
- Let people who are interested in Chinese culture get to know Chinese easier and better.
So, tell me why do you think that this blog is worth writing or worth reading? Which audience group do you think that we should target first?
A very great post. But anyway, our ifgogo.com is just a very small baby.
As you might notice from the traffic data via Google Analytics. After a previous post at my blog, the traffic is actually getting down. I'm quite sure that many people are just curious about this blog, and what's more, many "Web-Surfers" just take for granted that we are writing something for Adsense income from oversea countries. Though they are totally wrong, the traffic will be still very low for a long time. Never mind that, I am sure the reader who stay for longer, he/she will get more, or even join us as author. Moreover, I will tell you guys that once I'm not that busy, I will put some ads on my personal blog, which is being viewing 10K+ times from 5k+ unique visitors a day ;)
Nothing else, just enjoy reading, just enjoy writing :)
Anyway, it got PR3 from the beginning.
As an author: I would like to share my experience with my general audiences. I have my own blog elsewhere, and writing blog here about my personal experience and thinking in pursuiting my success will benefit someone who has a dream.
As a reader, I would like to get different ideas from different people. Moreover, not only the posts but also the comments inspire me indeed. As a start-up blog team, our reader group might change dramatically. To target the general Chinese readers is by no means our (at least my) original goal. As a global team, I would expect a global reader group as well.
By the way, none of them really care about our PV and PageRank.
Yes, Traffic, Google PR is never being a goal for us. That' should be the goals of the companies we worked for.
Xu, I am sure you have read some thoughts about the past and the future of the web:
Past - Browse - Yahoo!
Current - Search - Google
Future - Share - Facebook/SNS
Anyway, we just wanna share our experiences and life with everyone from this earth. Globalization rocks!
What I wish to see here:
Short, Clear, down-to -earth posts about your unique experiences. As for Chinese readers, they are here not for learning English. If that's the reason, they could go to any native English site. For foreigners, they are here to learn about modern Chinese minds and thoughts, traditional Chinese culture and life.
Be unique! Be honest! Be humorous! Be organized!
Thanks JiaJia for your comment here. Really hope you can be an ordinary reader of us, and even an author :)
lol......
Totally agree with Aw and Jia here!
Go ahead at our ifgogo steadily, and let others take a taxi anywhere!
I was wondering how did Aw come up with such an idea to create this Blog. It doesn't satisfy reader but author first. Nobody knows what he'll get before he comes here. I've dropped by about three times. I don't come here for the articles but for my curiosity.
Very happy to find that Cat has tried to explain what this Blog for. However, I didn't feel your explanation is powerful.
Anyway, I appreciated you guys' enthusiasm on it. I'll keep watch ifgogo dot com.
Thanks for your comment. Yes, you are right. But it doesn't mean that we do not pay attention to our readers. Instead, the reading experience is being emphasized almost everywhere: "Our Threaded Commenting System", "The Email Notification Feature", and some of the JavaScript works( very simple hacks that you may not notice )
What I'm actually talking about is that "a reader of ifgogo" is much more important than "a reader of an ordinary blog". Anyway, the advantage of a reader is due to an experienced team of authors. In such a team, every author should be of great passion in sharing and communicating some useful or funny stories.
Thanks again and hope you can understand :)
Thanks for your patient explanation. I do feel the reading experience here is really excellent. But it's from technique angle; I'd like to pay more attention to the content here. Actually, I'm very interested in the way that ifgogo takes. It's extraordinary. So as I came back here again and again, a little inner voice begins to ask why. I admit that I do enjoy some of the articles which I have read. But I don't know what I will find before ifgogo is displayed. Because it doesn't have certain topic like your blog do, where I know what kind of information I could get. So, ifgogo attract me currently is the sparks of its blog style.
Mostly, the articles in ifgogo are related to the authors' life, work or study. Sharing them with others is wonderful. But what's the different between putting them in their own blog and putting them in ifgogo. Is ifgogo just simply unite several personal blogs together? Personally I'd like the answer is NO, because I really care and am interested in ifgogo's future.
I did no explanation... I just gave some example, and expected some more diversified answers.
I'm also expecting diversified answers:)
I'm glad to see so many people share their lives and thinkings in one blog. I like its diversification. It is attractive to read articles in different style. At this point, I think it is more like my1510.cn.
I
Thanks very much, anyway, currently, we just wanna make this place funny and useful :)
As Aw once said, ifgogo is still young and need to grow up. I think ifgogo is just under such a circumstance that some Chinese authors here need to learn how to express himself/herself well in English and then they can share their experience and ideas with other people all over the world, who get to know ifgogo, or just bump into it.
Since the reader might be defferent from those at blogs in Chinese, we author do need to to care multicultural taste. However, Ifgogo is merely ifgogo itself with its initial "About" here. I'd like to copy as follows:
Ifgogo.com is a blog written in English by people from China or living in China.
It
if a guy type Chinese Characters?How would you handle?
^_6
We strongly do not recommend any user typing any Chinese character. But however, we cannot stop.
Anyway, I think it would seldom happen.
Maybe you could try to block the comment including non-ascii words on server... :P
However, it's up to you to choose whether to do it. :)
We can do it just for fun.
It seems like research, some subjects are also just for fun, I think. :)
We could let foreigner know Chinese culture better. Huh, a great task, right? :)
What kind of a person a Chinese should be, seriously?
I am Chinese, legally, but I was really confused when I tried to figure out the cultural characteristics of Chinese people,
the so called traditional virtues are so vulnerable in reality, and what is Chinese culture after all ?
If you wanna get to know more about Chinese culture, you may:
1.Read some historical documents, like My Country and My People.
2.Go to places where Chinese culture has a higher survival rate, like Hong Kong or Taiwan.
Just some personal suggestions. But I don't think you can find much Chinese culture in mainland, at least not as much as in Hong Kong or Taiwan, or as in documents.
I have found ifgogo incredibly interesting. I am a Chinese-American born in the US. So I am ethnically Chinese but consider myself American. (In my experience, I have found that it is hard for some Chinese to understand, because the concept of nationality is a little different for Chinese people than for the US, where there are people from so many places and is truly a nation of immigrants. Some people are a little freaked out when they realize that this Chinese guy doesn't speak Chinese!) Just between you, me, the ifgogo community, and the entire Google index, my Chinese is not so great :), so ifgogo is a great place for me to connect with the Chinese blogosphere to learn more about this exciting generation of people born in the 70s and 80s, after the country opened up.
Today, there is a one-way mirror between the US and the rest of the world. Everyone can see in--through movies, TV shows (Prison Break, Lost, 24, Friends, Desperate Housewives, etc.)--but no one in the US really can see out. Partly that is because most Americans don't know Chinese or other foreign languages, partly because Americans have no need to look outside.
But I think that during this next 20 years, things will change dramatically. There will be exciting new things for all of us to learn from places all around the world. Ideas will spring forth from places least expected. As Aw said, "globalization rocks!" At least for those who embrace the world with humility, open-mindedness, and a sense of possibility.
So Ifgogo can be a community that connects the world with China. Ifgogo can helps foreigners understand the hopes, dreams, fears, and concerns of Chinese people today. This greater global understanding can only be a good thing for all of us.
As a foreigner, I see Ifgogo as representative of China today--full of energy, passion and potential; unsure about which course it will take; experimenting with different models; learning from the West but then carving out its own path; powered by a globally aware generation that seeks to connect with others around the world. As one social theorist once said, "the philosophers have only interpreted the world, the point is to change it." So count me in as a sympathetic fellow traveler on your journey to interpret and change the world!
Cool! Finally we meet some guys with a different culture background.
The Americans really knows little about China. When I talked to a blogger in CA, he just told me that the only thing he knew about this country is tons of stuff are outsourcing to China.
Somehow, we can tell the world a REAL life, a REAL China.
Hey hey guys, you`re doing great spelling english, it`s so nice for me to understand you, and not to read something like Превед Медвед ))
bla bla bla...............hahahahhaha
I think it's a great blog fro two reasons. Firstly, it gives foreigners to find out about China through the eyes of people actually living there rather than foreign reporters.
Secondly, reading about local news and issues in a foreign language is a good way to practise that language in a way that is relevant to your real life.
Wil
@ Wil's World of Words